A "Theory" about increasing autism rates

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I've been watching utube videos of people with asperger's and autism. In particular I was struck how much behavior is tolerated that would have resulted in punishment for me when I was a child. Not sitting still, emotional outbursts, speaking inappropriately - each of these would have met with a quick and often fierce punishment, slaps to the face, whippings, etc. So by the time I was in school, all it took was a hard look from my mother and I would immediately stop what I was doing. By the time I reached school age, I at learned that the consequences of 'misbehavior' was quick and harsh retribution from authority figures. So I wrapped this shell tightly around me and shut down. There was a 'peep hole' in the shell that I looked out of so I could respond as necessary (NOT talking when expected or NOT doing something was just as bad as actually doing something 'wrong'). I was so tightly wound by the time I hit the middle grades I was already showing signs of clinical depression.

This brings up two questions. One is, is it really possible to so completely suppress what is now recognized as autistic behavior? Especially stimming, but even displaying other behaviors? In watching these videos I am astonished at how they mirror things I continually poured effort into not allowing myself to do. Almost as if my special interest was preventing punishment.

The second question is, how much of the increase in autism is simply recognizing that these behaviors so actively beaten out children at one time are now recognized as signs of something else? Where before, rocking back and forth would have gotten a slap to the face and a 'don't act like a ret*d' (yup - such things happened) , today it is looked at completely differently.

Just a speculative thought.

As to the first question, anything we put our minds to (any special interest we develop) we can excel at. It's just the way we are built.

As to the second question, I think this probably plays a very large role in the increase. I believe that children are cherished and appreciated much more by my generation than my parent's generation.

I definitely spent my childhood in fear of punishments for the kinds of things you have mentioned, and there is where I also began learning to *act* as demanded by others and without ever understanding what was actually going on. Either way, however, I still suspect few of us ever actually receive the kinds of upbringings and/or help we truly need.

I can definitely relate to having the fear of my mother! My older brother and I were severely punished if we misbehaved in public, or did anything 'wrong'. I was so terrified of the physical violence that I experienced in the place that I was supposed to be safe, that I never did anything that I knew my mom would disapprove of. I was so afraid of the consequences, that I really didn't do too much stuff that the average teenager did, I suppose. I seriously wish that no one else would ever have to experience the kind of childhood that I did, but the sad reality is that there are a lot of us out there.

I will be damned if my son experiences that kind of childhood, and I will do whatever I must to protect him from those types of people. That includes limited exposure to my mother, and my partner's family. That doesn't mean that I would let him get away with behaviour that I feel is inappropriate, but I don't believe he has to bear witness to any type of violence as a form of punishment or otherwise. He is a child. His world is full of wonder and amazement. If anything does anything to disturb that for him, I would flip out! Also, I believe that he likely has AS too, so I will give him the kind of support that I so desperately needed as a child and never received.

If it was not for the harsh punishments I got as a child I probably would have really hurt the other kids when they tormented me causing me to lash out. I always stopped at the point where I was just about to really hurt them when I was older out of fear of being punished. If I did not have this ingrained in on me at an early age I would have been a monster.

I also was punished for not sharing, being rude, and not being polite when out in public. When we went to the store I had to keep one hand on the cart and eye out for my brother incase he let go of the cart. If I let go or ran off I got popped for it. Other parents were always telling my mom when I was little they could not believe how well behaved my brother and I were while their kids were running amuck in the store.

I am always embarressed when I see autistic kids or adults acting strangly on tv especially when my friends or family are watching it with me and they ask me how come you don't act like that?

I was sent to my room for talking about my special interests one time, when I was 11. I'm still afraid to talk about my parents about my special interests, to this day.

It almost seems like much of autistic "bad" behavior is stuck somewhere between voluntary and involuntary. It can be suppressed, but only at a cost. The act of suppression consumes energy, leads to anxiety and depression, and ultimately a very frustrated individual.

This is why it's so important to diagnose kids, so they won't have to endure being punished for what they cannot help. Even with a diagnosis, it's tough. I had a diagnosis, not of autism, but was known to have autism-like behaviours, and still got in plenty of trouble. People were reluctant to use words like "autism" especially in my mother's family. To this day, I don't know what they really thought my diagnosis was. Still, my mom was convinced I could control my autistic behaviors so I continually was in trouble with her.

Not on my own.


It might be possible to alter the environment in such a way they are minimal. I have accomplished this.


People do hit and they think this hitting is going to cause the autistic child to stop that behaviour in fear of being hit. It doesn't work that way. Violence makes the situation worse, not better. Some behaviours, especially harmless movement and stimming, must be accepted. The irony is, once they are accepted and embraced by the individual and those who know them, they often lessen some on their own

I know I cannot completely surpress autistic behaviors. I can bury most of them well enough to pass as neurotypical, but it is like redlining an engine. It takes everything I have. I can only keep it up for so long. After that, I get stressed and anxious, sometimes physically ill, and prone to sensory overload.

I was punished for those behaviors, too.

I agree. Part of the "explosion" of autism probably is just greater recognition at the "HFA" end of the spectrum.

This does still happen. I witness it all the time in supermarkets.

As for me I was punished but not always beaten. My mum would sometimes snap and sometimes hit me but other times just verbally abused me.
My dad never laid a hand on me.
I guess I did start to suppress my autistic behaviours because of what people said about me.
Also, the more high functioning I became the less I needed to stim. My stims are crazy these days because of all my stress.
I've noticed my mum no longer tells me to stop flapping my hands too.

The only "autistic bad behavior" I ever got punished for were my meltdowns, which I never could control. If I could have I would have; the entire time during those meltdowns I was begging myself to control it so I wouldn't get hit. But that didn't happen. My only goals now are A: if my kid is autistic, never punish for meltdowns except to send them to their room to calm them down (which I never saw as a punishment, and it did help me), and B: if he/she isn't, I don't want to hit anyone. Period.

That's what happened to me. All the energy holding in stuff about my special interests until 2004, when WrongPlanet came to be caused me to have an episode that lead to me being diagnosed with Depression in the Spring of 1998 at the age of 23. I was in a grey area until I signed up as a WP member in the July of 2004.

I got hit a little as a child but it was a result of anger and not punishment. More effective was to explain the behaviour expected and be asked why I didn't act that way.

When I was very little I bit people, the only reason I stopped was apparently Mum bit me back but I think I didn't know I was hurting people by biting them until I experienced being bitten.

When I was really young, like around four, I bit myself and others. I can't remember how they got me to stop. It seemed like a short phase in my life that didn't last. I still bite my nails and chew gum. Chewing gum is a good alternative to this sort of behaviour. It might be possible substitute one for the other.

I wish that was true of me. I have had several special interests in languages. But I totally suck at them.



I think so too.

Also, I think it's more possible for some people than others to suppress these things in public and around people. I was only able to do it a few years despite being abused horribly in mental hospitals as a result. I did develop another wall of defense but it couldn't involve having to act normal because I just didn't have that ability anymore. These days I could not act normal to save my life.

But I do think it's possible for enough people to keep up the act long enough that it could have an effect on diagnosis these days.

Really sad story: There was a man (nonautistic parent of an autistic son) on another message board who called my autistic friend a ret*d for disagreeing with him. His son is very very unable to act normal. And yet it came out in a later conversation that he calls his son a ret*d when he does things like hand flapping.

What I got a lot of growing up was "Stop that, people will think you're [blind/ret*d/psychotic]!" Although I have to remember my parents grew up and even had their first autistic child in an era where autism and psychosis and everything were bad parenting, and then were not only threatened with having me taken away from them, but managed to find doctors who even in the nineties blamed them for making me autistic (what they referred to as "psychotic since infancy" but it was an explicit attempt to replace my autism diagnosis with something that better fit their worldview). So after I stopped being somewhat able to hide myself, my mother was under incredible pressure herself, and I've basically forgiven all the really ugly things that happened in my family at that time. (And there were many.)

Which also makes me wonder if some of the parental pressure on kids was due to the fact that many psych and developmental conditions were blamed entirely on bad parenting back then. Even Tourette's was.

(My family had two autistic kids. My brother born in 1966 and me born in 1980.)

A lot of the rise in autism is easily attributed just to increased diagnosis though. Fetal alcohol syndrome has had an equivalent rise, it's just fewer people question the cause. Autism entered the DSM in 1980, entered it in a much better and less strict form in 1987, and it can take decades for something like new diagnoses and criteria to propagate: In 2000 I encountered several doctors unaware the criteria had changed since 1980, in 1995 I encountered doctors who still thought it was a childhood psychosis brought on by parenting, etc. There has also been a sharp increase since it became a special ed designation in the USA in the 1990s. There has also been a corresponding decrease in diagnosis of mental retardation during the increase in autism diagnoses. So that's a huge part of it -- we were simply diagnosed with other things before.

Should add when I was doing my best to act normal it didn't entirely work. I didn't know that though until talking to others and remembering what others said to me. I wrote about it here.. I suspect that even those who pass better than I did don't pass perfectly.